GrowNYC's Compost Sites Encourage a Greener New York City

Make landscape, not landfill! That's the battle cry of GrowNYC, a non-profit environmental group.

Thousands of New Yorkers have donated over a million pounds of food waste to the group's Greenmarkets in the last two years. An October 7th tweet from GrowNYC reports that, last week alone, 31,600 pounds of citywide food scraps were sent to composting. But, some say there is still room for improvement. One of GrowNYC's compost tents typically draws only a handful of people. Michelle Cruz is one of them. She works at Mt. Sinai Hospital, which is right across the street. She usually drops off a bag of eggshells, banana peels, and carrot tops.

Cruz wishes more people made time for composting, which converts non-greasy food scraps into fertilizer for local farms and gardens. She said New York City would especially benefit from going a little greener.

"Our garbage is mostly food waste," she explained, "So, instead, this can be used to give us healthy fruits and vegetables, which I can't see anyone not wanting."

Cruz also said composting is easy. While you're cooking, throw all of your non-dairy and non-meat scraps into a paper bag. Then, just bring it along next time you go to a participating farmer's market. To find a compost site closest to you, visit grownyc.com.